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About Husker in WI

I think he could have a Charlie Whitehurst-type NFL career, and he's been around for 12 years. Look good in the preseason against guys who won't make rosters, stick around as a third string QB for a while, maybe get a regular season chance once in a while. Most fans won't have any idea who you are, but it's not a bad way to make some money if you have the arm talent.

It's really not what we ran in the 80's and 90's, and I think a Georgia Tech-level of success is the best you can hope for with it. We ran power football with a solid dose of options thrown in, not mostly triple option with some gimmicks. The Navy/GT offense is a couple different formations, a few different motions, and a set of plays off of each motion. I think Niumatalolo (and Johnson) are good coaches, but you're settling for a peak of consistent 8-9 win seasons and occasionally contending for B1G West titles if we find a great QB. I will be very disappointed if that's the route we go, I just think it limits our ceiling.
I wouldn't mind Shaw or Patterson, but it seems like the Patterson ship has sailed - he has TCU positioned to be a perennial top-20 team with playoff potential. Why leave, especially when that means recruiting Texas would be much harder? I also don't know if we're considered a step up from Stanford, we'd have to pay Shaw a lot.

I don't think having a WR with more yards than an RB is inherently a problem, but definitely a shift from the previous philosophy. Surprisingly never happened with Callahan, although you can give him some of the credit for it happening in '08 as well. Obviously more likely to happen with RB rotations, but in this case the run game just sucks as well.
In 2015 the top 4 rushers had 765, 444, 400, and 265 yards. In 2008 they had 803, 517, 467, and 258 yards. So 1,800-2,000 between the top 4 rushers, which I would be fine with. This year it's 431, 299, 259, 65. We do have 3 games left (and likely no bowl game, where the other years did have to boost the stats), but we're not running for 800 yards in the next 3 games anyway. It's not the rotation, it's just a pathetic running game.

I don't think Minnesota was ever considered a blue blood, most of their championships were from the '30s and '40s, not the modern era. I think we're at the point where it's a toss up for the average fan whether we're still in that category, but the all time numbers are in our favor. Problem is, the current athletes have only been around about as long as our conference championship drought.

Aside from things we already knew - coaches are bad at both game planning and managing, we lack speed on defense and consistency on offense - there were some things that keep me a little excited for the future with a new coach.
- Spielman will be really fun to watch with gameplans that actively try and get him the ball. Same with Lindsey - he's actually a solid blocker, but it's frustrating watching him come in to block and get one (poorly) designed play a game.
- The o-line desperately needs a shakeup, but guys like Decker, Jaimes, and Farniok give us some hope for the future. Seems like a lot of the blown up plays were Gates/Foster/Conrad, which should not happen.
- Weber will be missed. For all the talk of this being a "block destruction" defense, nobody other than some of the lineman and Weber ever take on a block aggressively. Newby actually played well I thought, although his 'setting the edge' was at times more 'run upfield to give them a seam.' But he looked much better than early in the year.
- Lamar Jackson has actually improved, but when he makes mistakes they are really bad. A couple penalties and one tackle attempt where he basically laid down in front of the guy were ugly plays, but outside of those he wasn't bad.
I really believe the pieces are there for us to be a division contender, there are just a lot of baffling decisions being made across the board. Hopefully whoever we hire will have enough time to salvage some of the recruiting class and convince current underclassmen to stay and play for him, because I don't think we're far from Pelini territory at least. Obviously the goal is to move past that, but I'll take steps in the right direction at this point.

Who else plays Center - Raridon, Brokop? I liked Conrad last year, but the difference between the line with Decker vs Conrad at Center is huge. Not that it's a great line with Decker, but it's better. I think Conrad has a place on the line, but not making calls when that's something he's never done before.

Bradley is our best bet at a consistent running game, so we better hope the injury mentioned today isn't bad. I love Ozigbo, but we can't block the opponent's big guys and he can't consistently get to the edge. I'm trying not to read too much into a few carries, but Bradley has the most functional athleticism of the healthy backs. I guess Wilbon is pretty athletic too, but he's just really tentative.
Lee has dramatically improved, but our complete lack of creativity holds the offense back. I don't know if it's predictable playcalling or what, but we make DBs look good - they're all over the receivers most of the time. Lee can put it where the receivers have a chance, but there a lot of our throws are into coverage.
I don't know what the deal is with our o-line, but it has to get better and I don't see that happening. Overall Gates/Foster/Farmer are solid, but there are way too many mistakes for a relatively experienced group. At this point a full reshuffling is not going to happen, but (injuries taken into account) honestly I'd try:
LT - Jaimes - Better fit than Gates
LG - Foster
C - Raridon? Wasn't he practicing at C? Just not Conrad, C is not his position.
RG - Wilson - Don't know why he disappeared. Farniok may be better at G than T, but the only positive for an OL with a club on his hand is it makes holding difficult.
RT - Gates/Conrad - Gates has been mostly fine, and at least here Lee won't get blindsided when he whiffs. I though Conrad was decent at T last year if the holding/misses continue from Gates.

Ozigbo keeps his streak of 100+ yard games. I think he breaks a couple decent runs, and even with Wilbon back he's the guy right now.
Nebraska covers, but I just can't see a path to us winning. Closer than people think, but even at my most optimistic I can't see a W here.
We find out who our 4th string (I think?) safety is. Sounds like we might be starting Kalu/Dismuke with Kieron as the backup - I'm gonna say one injury and one (probably bogus) targeting penalty, and I have no idea who we send out there. If Aaron can play this probably doesn't happen, but seems like he's been beat up all year.

That's super helpful - I there might be some debate about whether it's truly incapacitating since he's already getting close to back, I don't know how picky they are about that. I'm not sure the NCAA will buy "knee issues" as a season-ending injury, but I'm sure they get more details than we do. If 'season-ending' just means he doesn't play again that year, barring a setback sounds like it's up to him and the coaches. It would really suck if they denied it because it shouldn't have stopped him from coming back though.

They're talking about a medical redshirt - I think you have to apply for it or in some way get approval from the NCAA, but if you only played a few games they usually don't care. I think the cap is 4 games played, but I might be making that up.

Not excited to watch Young trying to make tackles with a club on his hand. We're going to struggle enough with their speed, if Barry's ready I hope he rotates in a lot. This is the type of game where athleticism is important, and we don't have sideline to sideline linebackers. A big nickel package with Reed would've been nice, but that's not happening either.

I agree he seems out of touch - we offer a ton of preferred walk-on spots, and have as many walk-ons as anyone. The in-state guys we don't get here either A) have a scholarship offer to other FBS schools, or B) prefer to take a lower level scholarship. I don't follow it incredibly closely, but who are the guys we're missing that would be walk-ons if offered the chance? I think he started off saying something about walk-ons being important which is true, and now he's just stuck talking about it. We pretty much do have a whole team of walk-ons, 50 is a lot. More walk-ons won't make this team better - we might get another starter or two, but there's a point of diminishing returns.
It kind of sucks that some of the walk-ons don't get much or any time with coaches outside their position group, but it's a big team. The HC/OC/DC aren't going to be super focused on specific players until they've shown they can make an impact. It's a harder route to being a difference maker - the coaches are already invested in scholarship guys, as a walk-on you have to make them invested in you. Maybe TO was better about making the walk-ons feel important, but I doubt the overall view was different. The coordinators/head coach will notice when your position coach tells them you should be contributing. Walk-ons as a group are important. A single walk-on isn't until he proves it, as harsh as that sounds.

I really can't see us going for either of the triple option coaches - and can you imagine that transition? You're definitely looking at a true freshman/JUCO qb, if they got hired with enough time to find one. Lee, POB, and Gebbia would be gone in an instant (plus some receivers probably), and with DPE graduating I don't think we'd have even a high-school QB on roster. Maybe you convince a decent option qb to come here because he'd have no competition for the job. Besides that, I agree with the people saying teams with that offense have a ceiling. We obviously ran a lot of option but it was I-backs not wing backs, and not so much of the motion/deception. That being said, Spielman/Lindsey as wing backs would be pretty fun.
Frost seems almost inevitable whether Riley gets another year or not. I don't think he goes anywhere else this year because he's talked about wanting to build a program, but being able to rebuild your alma mater and get paid more has to be pretty tempting. But he can win at UCF, and there's a lot less pressure.